The Problem of Suffering: One Man’s Story
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture Reading: Job 1 – 42 (NRSV)
There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
In John 9, we read the story of Jesus and His disciples walking along, seeing a man who’d been blind since birth. The disciples say to Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
In Luke 13, we read that Jesus was told about some martyrs from Galilee who’d apparently been killed while worshiping God. In response to the news, Jesus asks, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”
In the opening verses of Job, we read about an encounter between God and Satan in which Satan challenges the motives of one of God’s most faithful servants – a man named Job. The challenge results in a test devised to determine whether Job is truly dedicated to God. As the story progresses, Job is stripped of everything good in his life. The rest of the book reflects the human attempt to make sense of Job’s suffering.
Making sense of suffering (or at least, trying to make sense of suffering) seems to be a universal human need. Suffering has variously been explained as punishment for wrongdoing, as a kind of forging or testing of character, as random bad luck… Theologian, Miroslav Volf, writing about Jesus’ suffering on the cross, notes: “suffering can be endured, even embraced, if it brings desired fruit.”[1] We need suffering to make sense. And when it doesn’t, we risk the complete unraveling of our faith, particularly if our faith declares that God is good, compassionate, kind, and merciful.
On Sunday, we’ll be considering the story of Job alongside our own stories of suffering. We likely won’t walk away with a firm, logical, scientifically sound explanation for all the suffering in the world, but I hope we will walk away with our faith strengthened even when suffering doesn’t make sense. I hope we will walk away with the same confidence Job had, that even as incomprehensible as God’s reasons may be (assuming God has reasons for suffering), God is still good, compassionate, kind, and merciful.
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to spend some time listing all the explanations for suffering you’ve heard in your life. What are some of the things people have said to you when you’ve been hurting – for instance, when you’ve been grieving, or sick, or dealing with a challenging diagnosis? What are your go-to responses – those you say out loud and those you say just in your own head/heart – when faced with someone else’s suffering? Then spend some time reading that list out loud to God and asking for His wisdom and insight. And if you are suffering right now, ask God to be with you, to make Himself known to you, to be comfort in the midst of it all.
[1] Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 26.